ARRESTING FOREIGN REPORTERS, that is a real smart tactic to show the world your government isn't a brutal dictatorship......
By Will Englund, Griff Witte and Debbi Wilgoren
Washington Post Foreign Service
CAIRO - Bloody attacks on anti-government demonstrators in Tahrir Square continued for a second day Thursday, and a chorus of international condemnation grew louder as dozens of foreign journalists and human rights workers were arrested.
U.S. State Department spokesman P.J. Crowley called the arrests part of a "concerted campaign to intimidate" foreign press. "We condemn such actions," Crowley said in a tweet.
Egypt's information ministry said journalists had been rounded up across the capital, but said they did not know by whom, or where the reporters were being held.
Those detained were believed to include Washington Post Cairo bureau chief Leila Fadel and Post photographer Linda Davidson. The New York Times said two of its reporters were held overnight but had been released, and Al Jazeera said three of its journalists were detained and a fourth was missing.
Human Rights Watch said one of its staffers, American former journalist Dan Williams, was among several rights workers taken into custody when police and army personnel raided the Hisham Mubarak Law Center.
A total of eight people have been killed in violence over the last two days, Egypt's Health ministry said. Hundreds have been injured. Doctors working with the anti-government protesters said five of the dead were shot in Tahrir Square before dawn Thursday by loyalists of President Hosni Mubarak.
"They were killing our people," said Arafat Hussein, 25, a worker at the Ministry of Health who said he saw pro-Mubarak forces fatally shoot two of his friends--one in the head, the other in the heart.
Sporadic clashes continued through the day, though for the most part the pro- and anti-government groups kept their distance from each other, often on opposite sides of a line of military vehicles or personnel.
With rights groups and key allies condemning Wednesday's attacks on protesters, Prime Minister Ahmed Shafiq apologized on state television and said he wanted to initiate dialogue with anti-government groups.
"I offer my apology for everything that happened yesterday because it's neither logical nor rational," Shafiq said.
In an uncharacteristically conciliatory statement during a news conference, Shafiq said Wednesday's protests began in a civilized way, of which the country could be proud. The attack on protesters by Mubarak supporters, he said, was "a blatant mistake."
"Why did they go in?" Shafiq asked rhetorically. He promised there would be an investigation, "so everyone knows who was behind it."
At the same time, however, a spokesman for Shafiq's cabinet denied any government role in orchestrating the attacks. "We were surprised with all these actions," spokesman Magdy Rady told .Reuters. "To accuse the government of mobilizing this is a real fiction. That would defeat our object of restoring the calm."
Multiple witnesses told The Washington Post that Fadel and Davidson were among two dozen journalists arrested Thursday morning by Egypt's Interior ministry, said Douglas Jehl, the Post's foreign editor. It is believed that Sufian Taha, a translator, was with them and also detained.
Jehl said the Post has advised the State Department of the situation and has made "urgent protests to Egyptian authorities in Cairo and Washington."
Refusing to end their
10-day old-demonstration, protesters set up makeshift hospitals in alleyways off the square to treat their wounded, and fashioned a holding cell in a nearby travel office to detain those they suspected of inciting the violence.
Organizers said they had captured more than 350 "thugs of the government" among the pro-government demonstrators, some carrying police identification cards, and turned them over to the Egyptian army.
"Mubarak told them to kill us," said Osama Hilal, 27, a doctor who was treating the wounded at a makeshift triage center. "He thinks he can succeed to make all the people get out of this square. But we will not leave."
Human Rights Watch
condemned the Egyptian government for what it called "organized attacks on pro-democracy demonstrators" Wednesday and asked that those responsible be prosecuted.
"The events in Tahrir Square and elsewhere strongly suggest government involvement in violence against peaceful protesters," said Kenneth Roth, executive director of the watchdog group. "The U.S. and other allies should make clear that further abuse will come at a very high price."
Also Thursday, the United Nations announced that it was evacuating 350 staffers from Egypt. And
Britain,
France and
Germany issued a
joint statement calling on Mubarak "to avoid at all costs the use of violence against unarmed civilians, and on the demonstrators to exercise their rights peacefully."
The Egyptian army sent the following text message to cell phones throughout the country: "Youth of Egypt be careful of rumors and be reasonable. Egypt is above all of us so protect it."
In Washington Wednesday, White House spokesman Robert Gibbs called the violence "outrageous and deplorable" and warned that if any of it was "instigated by the government, it should stop immediately."
Wednesday's violence came after the army had urged
pro-democracy demonstrators to go home, saying Mubarak's
pledge the previous night to hand over power this fall showed that their voices had been heard. The coordinated nature of Wednesday's events suggested that his supporters were determined to show, as Mubarak had warned, that the country faced a "choice between chaos and stability."
Thousands of Mubarak supporters, encouraged by state television and spoiling for a fight, faced off against anti-government demonstrators starting at midday, while the army mostly stood by. Both sides then went at it with rocks, sticks and firebombs.
The president's loyalists fueled the showdown with a charge by men riding camels and horses and wielding whips and clubs. Hospitals reported that three people had been killed Wednesday and more than 600 injured.
Mubarak's opponents said they would not back down from their quest to force him from office. But pro-government groups seemed to be pushing back with new vigor. Omar Suleiman, the new vice president, said there would be no dialogue with the opposition until the protests stopped, while Egypt's Foreign Ministry said that calls from Washington and other capitals for Mubarak's swift exit were intended to "incite the internal situation" in the country.
By Thursday, the square was filled once more with anti-Mubarak demonstrators, and the mood had definitively shifted. Where once a popular slogan was, "We're going to stay in the square," now people were chanting, "We're going to die in the square."
Volunteers transformed a mosque into a hospital, emptying bookshelves of holy texts in order to stack bandages, gauze and antiseptic. At the travel office, demonstrators used plastic wrist restraints to handcuff Mubarak supporters they had hauled into custody for allegedly inciting or committing violence. The demonstrators showed reporters police identification cards that had been found on some of those allegedly inciting violence.
Saal el Ravi, a doctor working at the makeshift hospital, said the five who were fatally shot arrived between 3:30 a.m. and 5:30 a.m., he said. Dozens of others were treated for less serious gunshot wounds, he said. Doctors said hundreds of others came in with head and body wounds caused by rocks, fists and sticks.
Nearby, in an abandoned travel agency office, anti-government protesters created a temporary jail. Angry mobs were bringing in captives, including several whose identification cards said they were police officers or members of Mubarak's National Democratic Party.
One heavyset captive denied he was with the police, but his jailers said a card found on him identified him as Major Osama Kamal Mohamed, of the Interior ministry.
Mohamed's jailers lifted his arms up behind his back, trying to get him to confess, and he cried out in pain. One protester called him a "drama queen." Another, dentist Ibrahim al Hakim, said, "This is what they would do to us."
englundw@washpost.com witteg@washpost.com wilgorend@washpost.com Wilgoren reported from Washington. Correspondent Leila Fadel contributed to this report.
